


Curtain Call

by bloo_balloon



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Demons, Angst, CUZ IT IS, Car Accidents, Dubious Morality, I'm Sorry, Ice Skating AU, M/M, Near Death Experience, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt, This will get dark at times, demon!minho, figure skater!jisung, have i mentioned this is a n g s t y, unnecesarily so
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 18:57:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,920
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18817006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloo_balloon/pseuds/bloo_balloon
Summary: Professional figure skater Han Jisung does not believe in God. He's stopped doing so ever since the horrid car crash that left him paralyzed from the waist down, bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life and no longer able to perform.Anguished and powerless, he falls off the deep end and his will to live fades and fades until he decides he might as well opt for the easy way out.But just as he is about to take his last breath, a strange voice breaks the still and calls out to him."Won't you live a little longer for me, darling?"Han Jisung does not believe in God, but no one said he can't believe in the Devil, right?





	Curtain Call

**Author's Note:**

> So this happened...
> 
> It's been a thing in the making for some time now and after much deliberation, I've decided to say fuck it and actually post this atrocity.
> 
> Enjoy! (maybe?)

 

“Ah, Jisung? We’re friends sure, but he’s also always been competition so I’ve got to watch my back, you know?”

“Are you particularly worried about anyone? Any predictions for the podium?”

“There’s Felix Lee that I definitely have to look out for, Jisung too. Off the ice, he’s my cute little dongsaeng, but when he puts on those skates and gets in the rink, he’s an entirely different beast. It’s almost scary really, plus there’s the fact that he’s got a strong, very technical short program that he’s only ever improving the more he performs it. It’s tough competition this year for sure. As for predictions… I’d rather not comment on that and jinx myself in the process. I’ll just skate my best and prove that last year’s Grand Prix gold wasn’t a fluke.”

“Alright, best of luck to you, Woojin-ssi. That’s all from us, back to you Solhee.”

It’s an interview from just a few days before the final, but Jisung only finds it a full week after the competition is over and clicks on it, more out of curiosity than anything else. Kim Woojin is someone Jisung has been constantly compared to ever since he’d proven his worth with his Olympic silver medal two years beforehand, but until very recently, Jisung genuinely thought he couldn’t even begin to compare to such a great, well rounded figure skater like Woojin.

But then he looks up at the topmost shelf, at the Grand Prix gold medal, _his_ gold medal, sat proudly next to his Olympic silver and thinks that yeah, _Woojin-hyung was right to be worried about me_.

 

* * *

 

His coming back home is a whole mess of reporters, bright flashes and cheesy airport signs from his family and friends and as soon as he steps off the plane a part of him just wishes the ground would open up and swallow him whole if it saved him from having fans and paparazzi shove cameras and microphones in his face.

He hugs his mother and picks up his sister, twirling her around until they are both a dizzy, giggling mess. Then he turns to Chan and Hyunjin. The latter of the two is waving around an obnoxious neon yellow banner that says ‘WELCOME HOME BABY SQUIRREL’ like his life depends on it. “It was Channie hyung’s idea,” Hyunjin says with a cheeky smile, which immediately prompts Chan to playfully smack him upside the head.

If Jisung subtracts the media attention, jetlag and airport crowds, coming home is something he is definitely looking forward to.

But of course he gets to stay ‘home’ a grand total of three days before Hyunjin and Chan surprise him with tickets to Jeju-do, all expenses paid for in advance.

“A late birthday present,” they say.

And really who is he to refuse a full week of partying it up with his two best friends in one the most beautiful places South Korea has to offer?

 

* * *

 

It was _supposed_ to be a vacation.

Him, Chan, Hyunjin, and a small rental Toyota to drive around the island.

Jisung vaguely recognizes the scenery from when he’d been on a trip to Jeju with his family as a little kid. The greenery, the crystal clear waters, the people and the strange dialect all stuck to him for some reason. He’d missed this place, just as he’d missed Chan and Hyunjin.

They are supposed to arrive at Hallasan National Park at eleven o’clock as per their GPS’s estimation, backpacks filled with water and supplies to last them for a full day of hiking, faces bright with anticipation.

But little did they know that eleven o’clock would come and go, and they wouldn’t reach their destination.

The last thing Jisung remembers is the time it happens. The time the other driver loses control of the wheel and crashes into them, making their small Toyota swerve off the road and collide violently with a tree.

_Ten twenty nine._

 

* * *

 

For the longest time he is floating.

He doesn’t know where he is, how he got there or why he’s in the water fully clothed. He’s cold and tired, but there doesn’t seem to be any shoreline in sight.

He doesn’t know why there is a throbbing pain in his back or why his fingers come up covered in red after he touches his forehead.

He doesn’t know why he can’t feel or move his legs.

 

* * *

 

While he’s floating into nothingness he finds himself thinking about his mother, and then about Hyunjin and Chan and wonders what they’re doing. They were supposed to be on vacation together, weren’t they? What happened? Why was he here and not with his two best friends?

He thinks of crystal clear waters and sandy shores bathed in sunlight, he thinks of meandering roads and lush greenery.

He thinks of his sister, bright and smiley and always there to cheer him up, whether it be in person or through the phone when he’s away, training in America.

_Mum, Channie hyung, Hyunjin, Chanmi… I wish I could see you all again._

 

* * *

 

Hyunjin comes out with the least amount of injuries. A couple of bruised ribs and a minor concussion, both of which could’ve been avoided if he’d been wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash.

Unfortunately, Chan isn’t as lucky. His left arm is broken in three different places and because of the damage to the nerves, he’s lost all movement in his little and ring fingers. The doctors say that it doesn’t look to be permanent, nothing physiotherapy can’t solve.

Jisung is told that Chan was barely conscious when the rescue team pulled him out of the wreckage, the frightening combination of blood loss and a punctured lung almost managing to cut Chan’s life short. It’s a miracle that he survived at all and Jisung can’t stop crying when he sees his dear friend, battered and broken, but nonetheless _alive_.

And him? He wakes up in a hospital bed back in Seoul, a full ten days after the accident, and while he’s glad that he’s finally out of the cold, murky water, his head still hurts and he still can’t feel or move his legs.

One week later, the doctor tells him it’s permanent.

 

* * *

 

Needless to say that the accident changes him forever, both physically and mentally.

After the doctor breaks the news that he won’t ever be able to walk again, he cries uncontrollably for hours on end, clutching onto his mother’s shirt like his life depends on it.

“How do I live like this, mum?” he rasps brokenly. “How  _can_ I live like this?”

But his mother merely hugs him tighter to her chest and stays silent.

_She doesn’t know…_

_The message is loud and clear._

 

* * *

 

Hyunjin comes to visit every day and after he is deemed fit to move around again, so does Chan.

Chanmi takes up permanent residence in the chair at the foot of Jisung’s bed and is reluctant to leave every time she has to go to school. “I don’t want oppa to feel lonely,” she protests loudly, pouting whenever their mother tells her visiting hours are over. But every time before she leaves, she turns around and gives a tiny wave in his direction. “I’ll be back before you know it!”

He waves back and smiles.

_You have to be strong. For her, if not for anyone else._

 

* * *

 

With his discharge date rapidly approaching comes the realization that he’d missed twenty six scheduled practice sessions.

Not that it matters anymore.

 

* * *

 

 _“_ Oppa, does it hurt?”

When he wakes up that morning, his little sister’s concerned face is the first thing he sees. She’s biting her lip, seemingly deep in thought, one hand resting on the mattress, while the other is hugging her blue stuffed bunny to her chest.

He’s been back home for almost three weeks now, but the warm familiarity of the setting is all but dead and gone, almost to the point of him feeling like a stranger in his own house, the house he’d grown up in.

There’s so many new things cramming up his room now, things like the bottles upon bottles of pills he now needs to take on the daily, things like the packets of adult nappies that he is now forced to use, things like the wheelchair that seemingly taunts and mocks him every time he lays eyes upon it.

He’d never thought he’d grow dependent on any of those, but here he is.

“It doesn't, Chanmi. Not anymore,” he replies quietly, forcing a smile and ruffling his sister’s hair affectionately.

 _Liar_.

 

* * *

 

“You know you don’t have to force yourself to do this, Jisung.”

It’s Changbin’s voice that brings him back to the present, but unlike other times, not even cool, calm and level-headed Changbin can make the nervousness and uneasiness go away.

In a way, Jisung has also grown dependent on Changbin along the years that he’s known him, and that isn’t just because he’s the man behind every track that Jisung had performed to ever since the beginning of his career as a senior figure skater. No. Changbin is a friend, a precious friend. And that’s why Jisung had insisted that he be present for the press conference.

This is his public goodbye. One last hurrah before he’ll be swept under the rug and forgotten. By the fans, by the media, by the ISU.

If he’s being honest, the faster he’ll be forgotten, the better. This isn’t the way he wants people to remember him. He doesn’t want to forever be known as 'that one crippled ex-skater’. He doesn’t want to be pitied.

“I have to do this,” he tells Changbin, but really it feels more like he’s reminding _himself_ that he has to.

_Lights, camera, action._

 

* * *

 

“... at this point in time, there’s no telling what the future has in store for me, however, the one thing I am certain of, is that with this I am drawing the curtain on my career as a professional figure skater."

Chaos ensues.

Flashes blind him, questions are being shouted, one more insensitive than the next, people are swarming him, seemingly drawing nearer and nearer until he has trouble regulating his breathing. His palms are clammy and he’s growing more nauseous by the second.

The firm grip Changbin has on his shoulder is meant to ground him, the comforting presence of his coach on his other side is meant to ground him, but in reality, he is only getting farther and farther away, higher and higher until the earth shrinks into a tiny dot. Like a helium balloon with its string cut loose.

The faces of the reporters are suddenly unbearable to look at, morphed into distorted, hideous creatures with teeth as sharp as razor blades and emotionless, beady eyes that bore into his very soul. He feels trapped inside his own body.

He chokes out a sob that is caught both on camera and on mic and before he can fully grasp what is happening, everything turns black.

 

* * *

 

RETIRED PROFESSIONAL FIGURE SKATER HAS MENTAL BREAKDOWN DURING PRESS CONFERENCE [VIDEO]

 **skaz44** omg did you see that??

 **jijiboi** this is sad, i’m sad

 **mango_tango** he wasn’t _that_ good anyway...

 **shamelessblog19** @mango_tango ikr. now that his career’s over, we can start focusing on athletes who _really_ matter… like kim woojin~

 **franloves127** are people actually happy over this? y’all make me sick

 **awksil_9** at least the isu won’t have reason to suck his dick anymore. good fucking riddance.

 

* * *

 

_I can’t do this anymore._

 

* * *

 

 **Fluffball** @thereal_hannie

Exit, stage left.

**Author's Note:**

> Mentions: ISU = International Skating Union
> 
> Thanks for reading and I hope you're having a lovely day wherever you are!
> 
> Leaving feedback is encouraged and highly appreciated. :)


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